


Things Fall Apart

by sudaki



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-07
Updated: 2013-04-07
Packaged: 2017-12-07 18:04:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/751435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sudaki/pseuds/sudaki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Late Teikou Period, as recalled by Kise Ryouta.  Hero worship, disappointment, character stuff, short.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Things Fall Apart

Kise doesn't remember the first time Aomine told him "Not today, I got stuff to do." He doesn't really remember the last time either, only how he happened to glance up at a convenience store window on his way home and discovered "stuff to do" meant "standing around reading girly mags." After that he stopped asking Aomine to stay after practice to play one-on-one. And Aomine never stayed late again, eventually started missing more practices than he attended.

Midorima stayed late some days, but he had always made it very clear he wanted to practice alone. After he stopped playing with Aomine, though, Kise would hang around anyway, sitting on the bench and trying to make small talk. When he was really lucky he might get a few curt words, but most of the time Midorima maintained a frosty silence. 

Finally one day he annoyed Midorima enough that he missed a shot – or maybe the annoyance was the _result_ of missing a shot in front of somebody – and that was the end of the shooter's tolerance for Kise. "I'm not a philanthropist like Aomine," he said that day, green eyes blazing cold, "And I don't intend to indulge you. Go bother someone else." 

Sometimes after _that_ he would tag along with Murasakibara after practice, always to a convenience store and sometimes the one where Aomine was reading magazines. Kise blurted something out without meaning to once, and Murasakibara just looked down, down, down at him and said "What's the difference, Ki-chin?" through a mouthful of chips. "He's already good at basketball. It's not like Teikou's going to lose." And that was the truth but not the point, but Kise hated that look Murasakibara got sometimes – then – that was at once bemused and scornful – so he let the matter rest.

The one person Kise did _not _think of trailing after was Akashi. Akashi approached you, not the other way around. And around then he wasn't approaching Kise, generally, unless Kise screwed up during practice or – god forbid – a game. Kise didn't know if it was because Akashi, too, didn't like the way things were going or whether he liked it way too _much_ and was just that high on his godlike power. And no way in hell was he brave enough to ask.__

__At least there was always Kuroko, even up to the end – and since the change in Aomine he'd been looking kind of forlorn too, so Kise thought he might appreciate the company. Kuroko never had much to say when they spent time together, but he'd sit quietly staring at his vanilla shake while Kise babbled on about whatever came to mind, and it was better than being alone._ _

__Except sometimes Kise would realize he was alone talking to a half-empty paper cup because Kuroko had pulled his disappearing act again. Maybe he didn't feel the same way. Or maybe he was just cheap._ _

__Around that time Kise thought about quitting basketball._ _

__Between practices and games and photo shoots he'd all but lost touch with his old friends. It was almost like something fundamentally changed in him when Aomine hit him in the head with that ball – he had spent all his energy since then chasing that thrill._ _

__Even now, looking back, Kise can't think of any time he's felt better than he always did playing one-on-one with Aomine – unable to wipe the stupid grin off his face as he fought and sweated and lost again and again and again and again._ _

__The luster might have gone, but the memory was enough – the faint hope that it might happen again – so he gave up on the idea of quitting pretty fast._ _

__Besides, he told himself then, it got girls' attention, _everyone's_ attention; Teikou was famous and, as Murasakibara said, they never lost. It was a thrill just to be part of something so great, so renouned, so when he felt disappointed he made himself think of that instead and whined at the others for not giving him enough chances to show off._ _

__It was during one of their last games at Teikou – and Kise remembers this in perfect detail – how after Akashi called a time-out to take him to task over something trifling he wiped his sweaty bangs off his forehead and said, not entirely joking, "It's gonna feel great to get away from you Miracles and be on a team where I'm the ace and not your fall guy."_ _

__"How's it gonna feel when I kick your ass?" Aomine said, not even irritated, just bored and disdainful – and with that dead look in his eyes that was the opposite of how Kise had somehow still thought of him, even then._ _

__For a long time he thought of that moment as the _End,_ but Kise thinks now he was off by several months at least. The _End_ had come and gone in secret sometime long before, like Kuroko vanishing and sticking him with the check – by the time you noticed it, it was way too late to do anything but pay up and move on._ _


End file.
